


Her Happy Beginning

by Katie_Dub



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Enchanted Forest, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 01:51:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10561386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katie_Dub/pseuds/Katie_Dub
Summary: Princess Emma of Misthaven is luckier than most. She finds her happy ending at just six years old. She just doesn’t know it yet.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lil_Redhead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lil_Redhead/gifts).



Some people wait a whole lifetime for their happy ending. Others find theirs sooner and yet find themselves bored and wondering, is this it? Princess Emma of Misthaven is luckier than most. She finds her happy ending at just six years old.

She just doesn’t know it yet.

“Who dares trespass on the fearsome Captain Hook’s ship?”

Emma freezes at the rough words despite the evidence of all her senses clearly showing that she is far from harm. In a forest, in fact, not more than a few miles from her family’s summer home and miles away from the sea.

But, in all her six years she's never known anyone to take such a tone with her. People usually don’t when they talk to a Crown Princess. She should know that this is but a game of make believe, but she’s a lonely child and not used to playing games. And so, these words are enough to strike fear into her heart.

“Oi! Are you deaf or are you defying the Captain, lass?”

The voice comes from much closer now and she jumps, unsure of what to do or say. Instinctively she raises her hands in surrender and turns to face the pirate.

She’s met with a boy not much older than herself with blue eyes and dark floppy hair. He looks so far from the image of the ferocious pirate that she had conjured in her mind that she can’t help but laugh. The boy huffs in response, and pokes a stick at her chest like it’s a sword.

“Do I have to make you walk the plank?”

Emma spies a suitable stick for sparring with and quickly ducks down to grab it. She may be a princess, but her father is already teaching her to defend herself. She brandishes her own sword at Hook and grins. “You can try, but you’ll have to defeat me first.”

He looks her up and down, sneering a little. “You going to tell me your name before I make you shark bait?”

“Captain Swan.” She doesn’t know where the name comes from, but she likes it. And so, with the necessary introductions made, they fight.

(Don’t all the best love stories start with a fight?)

It’s a ferocious mess of clumsy limbs and slipping on tree roots. Neither one can quite get the upper hand on the other, but they fight long and hard. Until their clothes are dirty, they both have at least one bruise apiece and they are panting for breath. Then, suddenly, in that strange way of children, they simply stop.

“You hungry, Swan?” Emma realises that she is actually quite starving and her new friend Hook seems kind enough to share his lunch. So they eat, and once they are done eating they resume their feud and return to the very important business of pretending to be pirates.

Emma is so happy when she runs home that she doesn’t care that her mother scolds her for ruining her dress. Tomorrow, she decides, she will wear trousers, they are far more suitable for adventuring in after all.

And so it goes that she spends her days living a fantasy with her new friend. (Her only friend.) Sometimes they are warring pirates engaged in epic battles. Sometimes they are fellow knights defeating dragons. (One time Hook dares to suggest that she play a princess in a tower in need of rescue. She kicks him in the shins and declares that no one rescues her but her. He makes quite the fetching damsel in distress in her place.)

She plays and laughs and lives and feels like summer will never end. When it eventually does, as all things must, and it’s time to go home to their castle, Emma cries so hard that her mother thinks she must have a terrible illness and sends her to bed for a week.

And this is where it all starts. Her great happy ending. But she's not quite ready for it yet. First, Emma has some growing up to do. There’ll be a separation, an unwanted betrothal and a prince in disguise before we get there. But all in good time.

The next four summers of Emma’s life pass in much the same way. Playing at pirates with her friend in the forest. She doesn’t even know his real name (isn’t that the way with all the best fairytales?), he doesn’t know hers. But her days spent with Hook are the best of her life. They’re what she lives for.

But alas, before the happy ending must come the separation.

She is 10 years old when she gets her first taste of heartbreak. (She hadn’t even realised that she was in love with her friend until he was gone. A childish, innocent  sort of love to be sure, but sometimes the smallest people have the biggest hearts and love is love is love is love.)

She finds Hook in their spot on a beautiful August day, when the sun is sparkling through the trees. She tries to sneak up on him, but steps on a dry twig, the loud snap rings out and alerts him to her presence.

“Swan.” He smiles when he turns and sees her, but he still looks sad somehow. (And the sight makes her heart twinge a little. It’s been doing that a lot lately, when she’s around him, making itself known, nudging her towards curious feelings that she doesn’t quite know how to process.)

“Hook!” She grins, hoping to soothe away the sadness with their games. It’s the only way she knows to make him smile. (And she wants to see him smile for real, for _her_ , always.) “Ready to set sail in search of treasure?”

“I wish I could, Swan.”

Emma frowns, Hook isn’t playing right. Perhaps… Is he too old for games now? Maybe he’s outgrown her. She pushes the thought aside, she doesn’t want to accept that it could be true.

“But you can! That’s the game, remember? Hook and Swan, dastardly pirates off on daring adventures!”

He shakes his head. “Not anymore. I have to go away.”

Emma feels a tug on her heart that she can’t quite comprehend, she just knows that it isn’t right. This feels all wrong. (For who would ever want to be separated from their happy ending, even if they are but 10 years old?)

“Why?” She can’t say anything else. There’s nothing else to say.

“I’ll be 13 soon. They tell me it’s time for me to become a man, and that means going away.” He looks thoroughly depressed and Emma wrinkles her nose in disgust.

“Do you have to? Men are so boring.”

Hooks laughs at her, and finally she sees the light back in his eyes.

“Aye, but perhaps I can be a pirate for one last day.” He bends down and swipes a stick from the floor, before brandishing it at her like a sword. “Now, tell me: Who dares trespass on the fearsome Captain Hook’s ship?”

They spend the day having the grandest adventures of all. They befriend a giant atop a beanstalk, they battle the fiendish Lost Boys in Neverland, they defeat a dragon and flee aboard their ship. All in all, a grand day for any person, old or young.

When the time to say goodbye comes, Hook looks nervous, shuffling awkwardly. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again, Swan.”

The thought makes Emma feel impossibly sad and this was the best of days. It can’t end with such sadness. “You will,” she vehemently declares, unsure where this certainty comes from, but knowing that she needs to believe it.

“I hope so.” He scratches at the back of his ear, anxious and uncomfortable. He seems to be searching for his courage. “You were the best friend I ever had, Swan.”

“You _are_ the best friend I _have_ , Hook.” Emma corrects instantly and he throws his arms around her in a hug. He murmurs into her shoulder, “aye, lass. Always.”

He pulls back to look at her, but stays close. For a moment all Emma sees is his blue eyes, clear as the summer sky, but then he kisses her and her heart bursts. It’s over almost as soon as it begins, a chaste press of his lips to hers, but in that moment, she starts to finally understand what love is.

And then it’s over and he is gone. They don’t say goodbye. It’s too hard.

So now, they are separated, but don’t worry, it won’t be forever. This is just one chapter in their fairytale. It’s the saddest one, true, but it’s always darkest before the dawn as they say.

It’s the night of the grand ball for her 16th birthday, and it’s time for Emma’s happy ending to truly begin. (She’ll find that out soon enough, but first we have that unwanted betrothal to resolve and a prince to reveal.)

Emma is laced into a stunning dress, so tight she can barely move. She is handed sweet treats and tasty delights until she feels sick. She feels suffocated by the well wishers and beauty and splendour that surrounds her.

But most of all she aches inside, wishing for a simpler time when she could run about the forest and play at being Swan with Hook by her side.

She often thinks of him - the first boy she ever kissed. When she hears reports of pirates on the eastern shore, when the summer sun seems to shine extra bright in the brilliantly blue sky, when she feels small and alone and without a friend in the world.

(Those times she carefully unpacks the memory of his “always” and holds it close to her, letting it rejuvenate her until she can carry on alone.)

And tonight? Tonight she is to meet her betrothed. She wishes with all of her heart to be given the chance to find true love. Instead, she is being sold off to the highest bidder “for the good of the kingdom”.

Perhaps she isn’t wishing hard enough, or perhaps the fairies are punishing her for some unknown slight. (Little does she know, her wish has already come true, it’s simply slipped through her grasp. But that’s just for now.)

Her parents are adamant that she can refuse this man, if she desires. That love matters above all else. Her father in particular looks pained to even suggest that she should consider marrying for anything but love.

But she has been raised to love her people, to put their needs before her own, and this was a strong alliance that would greatly benefit her kingdom. She knows she will accept, even as she thinks of that chaste kiss in the dappled sun with the boy who didn’t even know her real name.

(But he knew _her_ though, and isn’t that all that really matters?)

She twirls and smiles, makes polite small talk, and wishes and wishes and wishes.

She catches sight of a pair of stunning blue eyes like a clear sky on a summer day from across the crowded room. _Hook?_ She stumbles, startling her dance partner.

“I’m sorry, I think I need some air.” She smiles and curtsies to the flabbergasted noble before turning and running in the direction of those fine eyes. By the time she reaches the place she knows the stranger had been, he is gone.

She might’ve put this down to a ridiculous fantasy brought on by the intense emotions of the event, if she hadn’t seen him again. And again. And again. Every time, he disappears before she can reach him. She just wants to get close to him, to see if maybe, he could be her long lost friend.

She is finally within reaching distance of him, when she hesitates, paralysed by indecision. He’s talking to a very pretty lady, who flirts and smiles and bats her lashes. Emma can clearly see that she would be intruding. What would she do if he isn’t Hook? What would she do if he _is_?

She watches as he reaches his right hand up to scratch behind his ear, in a nervous tic that she had witnessed time and time again. (Most notably before their kiss, which she has re-lived oh so many times in her mind.) Happiness bubbles up in her and she reaches out for him, grabbing him by the hand and spinning him towards her.

“What’s the fearsome Captain Hook doing at a fine ball like this?”

He looks momentarily stunned before understanding spreads across his face. “Swan?” Emma nods and he drops into his pirate voice as easy as breathing. “I come seeking treasure, what about you, Captain Swan?”

Emma grins, before noticing the scowl she is being sent by the girl who previously had Hook’s attention. “I find myself in need of air, care to escort me outside, Captain?”

He immediately offers her his arm and sweeps her outside, not even casting a backwards glance at the now very disappointed lady he leaves behind.

As soon as they are through the doors, Emma grabs his hand and drags him further into the garden and behind a bush. He looks startled by the move, squeaking out, “what - what are you doing?” Emma flings her arms around him in a hug and he relaxes into her arms, bringing his own tight around her.

They stay that way for a long time, Emma finally, finally feels content. (One might even say, her happy ending feels close at hand.)

It occurs to Emma that she is probably holding on too tight, that the hug has gone on for too long and that persuades her to reluctantly release him and step away. “Sorry. I just wanted to hug my old friend without worrying about anyone seeing my ‘inappropriate behaviour’”

Hook chuckles in response. “Ah yes, the wonders of society’s expectations. At least you didn’t want to kiss me.”

Emma’s breath catches in her throat at his words. He certainly is far more handsome than he was at nearly 13, a grown man now, with a strong jaw and strong arms. Her eyes flick down to his lips

_Do I want to kiss him?_

When she looks back up into his eyes she is startled by the intensity she sees. He gazes at her with so much longing that unknowingly she steps closer, drawn in by a force she cannot name.

(Love, it’s love.)

“You don’t mean to say a fair maiden such as yourself _does_ want a kiss from the dastardly Hook?” He perhaps means his words to sound light and teasing, but there is a gruff passion in his voice that makes her heart speed up.

“You’re forgetting you aren’t the only pirate around here Hook.” She sways closer to him, tilting her face to his -

“Emma! Emma, are you out here?” Her mother’s voice rings out around the garden, breaking the spell. She drops her eyes and stumbles away from him, unable to look at him. She fears that if she did, she might never leave his side again.

“Oh, there you are! There are so many people for you to meet. And you still need to meet the prince.” Queen Snow looks so excited that Emma nods along, even while her heart breaks to think of her pirate who she has left behind.

Emma tries in vain to catch a glimpse of her long lost friend throughout the night. Maybe their moment in the garden didn’t mean to him what it does to her? She scans the room fruitlessly, when her mother interrupts her thoughts.

“Emma, darling, we’ve waited far too long to introduce you to the most important man here.”

Emma’s heart sinks at her mother’s words, but still she continues to search. Perhaps if she finds Hook first, she will never have to meet her intended.

“May I introduce you to -”

Emma’s heart pounds in her ears, she feels quite breathless and she is certain that her over-tight corset is not to blame. She drops her gaze to the floor in defeat, taking deep breaths and preparing her polite princess face.

“Prince Killian.”

Emma hears a sharp intake of breath that makes her look up, straight into the eyes of her Captain Hook.

All thoughts of dignity and propriety fly from her mind as she looks upon him. “But you’re a pirate!” she blurts the words out unthinkingly, he just laughs in response.

“As are you, _Princess Emma,_ ” he breathes out her name in wonder, an uncertain smile passing across his face as he cocks his eyebrow questioningly.

Queen Snow looks from one to the other, confused by their questions. “Do you two know each other?”

“He’s my oldest friend.” Emma replies, too transfixed by Killian to notice the look of sheer joy that crosses over her mother’s face.

If the queen has anything to say in reply, Emma doesn’t hear it, because at that moment, Killian takes her hand and bends to kiss it, never once taking his eyes off her. “Might I have the honour of a dance with the loveliest lady in the room?”

Emma knows she must have said yes, although she can’t remember doing so, for she finds herself in his arms being lead through a waltz. She beams up at him, feeling like a cliché come to life. She has jumped for joy right over the moon to land on cloud nine and she will never stop walking on air as long as she is in Hook’s - in _Prince Killian’s -_ arms.

“So, I understand we are to be wed, Swan.” He offers with a sheepish grin and a raised eyebrow. “Assuming of course, that you’d lower yourself to marrying a no good pirate?”

He looks so adorably uncertain, with his twisted smile and doubt in his eyes that Emma couldn’t find it in herself to tease.

“That depends, Hook.” Emma feels her mouth twisting into a cheeky, happy smile at what she’s about to say. “Would you?”

“Aye.” One simple word, but he says it with so much passion and feeling, while he pierces her heart with his intense eyes that shine with something that feels a whole lot like love.

So at last, we have an unwanted betrothal that is resolved in the best possible way, and a pirate who was really a prince all along. There’s only one thing left to do.

She longs to kiss him right here on the dance floor, but she knows it’s not the done thing. But later. Oh, later she will. She will spend a lifetime kissing him. The thought sends shivers of joy down her spine.

_Today_ , she thinks, _is where my happy ending begins._

But we all know that it really began years ago when a lonely girl met a lonely boy in the forest.


End file.
